... but I was trying to express, as you know, the idea that a link from a PR1 page could be more valuable, depending on the number of outbound links, than a link from a page with higher PR.

As a general principle, that is true over the link population as a whole.

Some - very many? - though, are of the mistaken belief that ToolBar PR is a linear ranking, such that a TBPR of, for example, 4 carries 4 time the value of a TBPR of 1. It was this notion that I sought to dispel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

That's true, and there are other factors that may come into play. For example, the link's position on a page may influence PageRank ... .

While theoretically possible, highly unlikely.

Bear in mind that PR was intended to emulate the citation system used by academia. A brief viewing of such documents will show a variety of annotation methods and organizational styles. For example, in-line annotations may refer to either a Footnote or a listing in the Bibliography. Footnotes may cite a specific external document, a specific location internal to the document, or to a listing in the Bibliography.

To weight a link based on its location would be to show a preference for a particular style and methodology in a manner that is arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory.

Additionally, were Google to implement a PR algorithm other than that published, it would be highly likely that they would also seek to protect against its use by any outside party, by way of filing for Copyright protection.